Out, Out Blind Spot

April 27, 1986|By Michael McLeod

It's one spot you can never quite remove: that missing, twilight-zone area in a car's rear view mirror known as the blind spot.

For most automobiles, the blind spot begins at about five to 10 feet behind the rear bumper. When another vehicle enters into that area it becomes temporarily invisible to a driver checking in the rear view mirror -- unless, of course, the driver is in Gearry Mixon's Porsche.

Mixon is an Orlando inventor who has equipped his car with the prototype model of a ''lane change warning unit.'' The unit, activated when the turn signal is switched on, checks behind the car via sonar and a microchip computer. According to what it senses, one of three lights blinks on at the bottom of the rearview mirror: green for clear, yellow for caution, and red to indicate that there is another vehicle from 10 to 35 feet away-- so close, in other words, that changing lanes would be dangerous.

Mixon hopes that a manufacturer will buy the patent and put the device into mass production. He estimates that its retail cost would be from $50 to $150. He says that insurance industry officials are interested in the device and say that a user might be able to qualify for insurance discounts.

The lane change warning unit already has one satified customer. Mixon says that he has been amazed at how useful the prototype unit has been to him. ''It's like there's more to the car,'' he says. ''It's like driving a machine that is safety-conscious. Sometimes I get the feeling that the car is thinking for itself. It doesn't want itself to get hurt.''